Monthly Archives: July 2008

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Did you notice how skillfully they made McCain the victim? McCain runs nasty racist ads, Obama says one thing about it, and they pounce with the prepared line about Obama “playing the race card.”
Saying a black man is “playing the race card” is, of course, racist, but who’s counting? Those yuppity negroes just everything handed to them.

We already know that Republicans hate government by the people. According to them, if you are not rich you are a “loser” who deserves nothing because you are not “contributing” to the corporate economy.
After New Orleans it was pretty clear that they also just hated the people. Recently McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm said the country’s problems with the economy are a “mental recession,” and said of people losing their homes, jobs, pensions and health care: “We have sort of become a nation of whiners”
Well, here is another example. Open Left found this. Here is Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, talking about the thousands who drowned in New Orleans:

So I don’t want anybody telling me that we have to offset a disaster relief package for the Midwest where people are hurting, when we didn’t do it for New Orleans. Why the double standard? Is it because people aren’t on rooftops complaining for helicopters to rescue them, and you see it on television too much? We aren’t doing that in Iowa. We are trying to help ourselves in Iowa. We have a can-do attitude. It doesn’t show up on television like it did in New Orleans for 2 months.

People trapped in rising water, downing, were whiners “on rooftops complaining for helicopters to rescue them.”
Conservatives say that the poor are “losers” who “made bad decisions” and shouldn’t be “rewarded.” Here is a typical example, at the Republican TownHall website,

In a democracy, every person has a single vote. Unfortunately, what is becoming increasingly true is that someone with millions of dollars and the willingness to fund front groups has the ability to influence millions of votes.
Take the issue of the Iraq War – by any and every national poll, millions of Americans want the war to stop as they see through the lies that got us in the war, the lies that have kept us in the war and now with even the Iraqi leadership asking we leave, the vast majority of Americans see no reason to fund billions on dollars in war every month.
However, despite their wishes and their votes, the wishes of the people are countered by the wishes of the few, or in today’s example, the wishes of one, Sheldon Adelson. Mr. Adelson is one of the very few wealthy “behind-the-scenes” manipulators that set up phony front groups and fund them with millions and millions of dollars to pollute our country’s discourse, smear people, spread fear and lies and the worst kinds of dirty stories. Every politician knows that this ugliness could be directed at them if they dare try to fight this kind of power.
Where do these Republican, pro-war front groups get so much money?

John McCain says that giving tax breaks to rich people means we will have more jobs, and taxes cost jobs.
Can someone explain that to me? Why would taxes on profits cost jobs? Wouldn’t a company have exactly as many employees as they need? And if they are making a profit – which is the only time a company pays taxes – why would they lay people off?
And how would taxes on really rich people cost jobs? Taxing the rich would mean a lower budget deficit, which would mean lower interest rates and a stronger dollar which would mean lower gas prices…

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one’s paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget’s stretched so thin
And there’s more comin’ home from the Mideast war
We can’t make it here anymore

The Commonweal Institute is an alliance of independent thinkers leading the public in civic dialogue about our shared values as Americans and a progressive approach to problem-solving. We envision a society in which the advancement of human rights, civil liberties, participatory democracy, justice, strong and caring communities, and a more secure and sustainable future coexist with responsible global capitalism. Our goal is to engage all segments of society in the discovery and creation of a new harmony between private interests and the common good.

This post oroginally appeared at Speak Out California.
So many of us have a hard time living up to our own values. Here is a story of one example.
The Sisters of St. Joseph have a proud history of fighting for human rights and human dignity and improvement of conditions for working people. But like so many progressives — and people in general — the Sisters of St. Joseph appear to be having trouble living up to these values when they apply to themselves.
A few days ago Julia Rosen wrote a Calitics post titled, Sisters of St. Josephs it’s time to make peace with your workers. I urge readers here to go read that post. Julia writes,

It is a dirty little secret, but often times the more virulently anti-union employers are religious orders that run health systems. Such is the situation with the Sisters of St. Joseph who run the St. Joseph Health System. They have been resisting the efforts of their service employees to join SEIU-UHW for the past three years.

OK, so I’m a big corporation. I decide to shaft you for $157.29. You decide never to pay it because you didn’t get what you ordered, or whatever happened.
So I, the big corporation, reports to the credit agency (another big corporation) that you didn’t pay your bill. There you go, pure extortion: you pay up or we’ll ruin your credit rating and you don’t get to participate in the economy anymore.
Does anyone even remember democracy? That’s that thing where the people set the rules and make the laws, and do it to benefit each other.

Have you heard about the massive budget deficit that the Republicans are gifting us with this year? Even that is a lie. Correntewire caught it: Department of burying the lede,Ho-hum, in the middle of an article about the latest record federal deficit comes this aside:

The administration actually underestimates the deficit, however, since it leaves out about $80 billion in war costs. In a break from tradition — and in violation of new mandates from Congress — the White House did not include its full estimate of war costs.